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Dear women in contractual employment,

If you are planning to have a kid, conceive at least 38 weeks before your contract ends. 

You will find this useful if you ever need to claim maternity benefits from your employer. I had to learn this the hard way by fighting a legal battle and earning an adverse judgement from the Bombay High Court.  

I had been working as a full-time ad hoc faculty member at a Mumbai college when I found out that I was pregnant. I was happy, but also worried about my job. I was a contractual employee and was made to feel this systematically. We were paid significantly less than our permanent colleagues, had fewer leave entitlements, received no Provident Fund benefits, and worked under a principal who told us to look for a job elsewhere when we raised complaints about our employment conditions. We were, after all, not bonded labourers, she would remind us, lest we forget how “free” our employment status supposedly was.

So, I was naturally concerned whether the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 covered contractual employees. I read the Act. Did I work in an establishment employing no fewer than ten people? Check. Had I worked for at least eighty days in the 12 months immediately preceding my expected date of delivery? Check. These provisions exclude the vast majority of women workers in India. I was convinced that I belonged to that small segment of women legally entitled to maternity benefits. 

I was also relieved to learn that the Act protects women against termination because they are pregnant or on maternity leave. I knew of a colleague who had suffered a miscarriage and gone back to work just a week later, pleading with her confidantes not to spread the news. She feared that........

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